Disagree. Eventually we’ll colonize places just a few light years away. Colonization will grow (exponentially? at least geometrically. but I think exponentially). Besides, we can communicate with this place (that’s why I asked how far we were talking) with a turnaround of anywhere from 100 to 100000 years, if they’ve invented radio.
I agree to some extent, but extra-solar colonization will probably begin with machines first, true AI, if it’s possible. Then these sentient machines could “grow” humans there after they set up shop (but that’s a loooong ways off).
One circuit of communication could be much less than 100 years, if it’s within a sufficient radius. Shoot, if we find intelligent life on a planet 20 LYs out, that’s a 40 year round trip… still within the lifetime of some here, even if communications started 10 years out. But I’m not that optimistic.
I do hope to witness finding some evidence of life on an extrasolar planet within my lifetime (which, if I’m lucky, will be sometime before ~2060). It would satisfy something deep within not only me, but I think a lot of people. Like finally scratching an itch we haven’t been able to reach for that last few thousand years or so.
A whole new set of questions would begin. What kind of life are we talking about? Is it carbon-based (I’m assuming since we detected it with our technology, that’s probably the only life we would recognize). How complicated? What kind of variety? Does it have DNA? We’d reach out with everything. We’d build huge international space telescope arrays to see in every possible wavelength, at ever increasing resolutions.
We’d realize, that sending a probe is pretty moot, but I’m sure many would jump in with ideas and proposals, even if results wouldn’t get back to earth for hundreds (probably thousands) of years.
It (well, it’s star) would become the focal point of the sky. It will receive a name, and be taught in classrooms.
Then hopefully, we’ll begin detecting more.
OK, in that scenario, I’d advocate a very cautious approach. First we send a probe, unarmed, with capability to return data for analysis and a welcome message of some type just in case the probe is intercepted. I would not send a lander unless/until we know more about the situation. Definitely do not want to risk contamination or anything.
Forgot to say: I masturbate to the initial news report that life has been found on an extrasolar planet every day for the rest of my life.
Sing a song of aliens
a rocket full of pie…
In the history of mankind, whenever something new was discovered, it’s been like this:
- Can I eat it? Yes/No If yes, begin exploitation. If no, go to 2.
- Can I screw it? Yes/No If yes, begin exploitation. If no, go to 3.
- Ignore it. Begin exploitation.
Nope, time dilation is a savior. If you can just continually accelerate at g, you can reach galaxies in your lifetime. To stop over, you’d have to start decelerating half way to the planet, but even so you would probably be able to make it. Just don’t expect to visit friends back home (they will have been dead for thousands/millions of years.)
What if we get artifical radio signals being transmitted from it, that resemble, though not the same thing, as our “I Love Lucy” television show, albeit different, and in a strange language?
What if after years of monitoring their signals, we eventually decipher their language, and find out that they seem to be in constant war on that planet, and constantly murdering each other?
Good luck developing some kind of propulsion system that will let you accelerate indefinitely. And once you’ve done that feat of science-fictioneering, you’ll have to deal with the enormous amount of kinetic energy and radiation resulting from the impact of even the smallest piece of space dust, or at high enough speeds, even single hydrogen atoms.
We may travel (or more likely send probes) to some distant star system some day, but they probably won’t be moving at relativistic speeds without some very speculative advances in materials science or propulsion physics.
As for the question posed by the o.p., the result would be a fantastic level of interest by planetologists, biologists, and probably SETI advocates. For everyone else it would just be a headline in the science section of the newspaper and a series of articles in Scientific American. The practical impact, even on theology, would be almost nil.
Stranger
Nuke it from orbit. Only way to be sure.
I’d want to ask them whether they have resolved the Riemann hypothesis and P=NP?
Conversely, they might want to know whether the Poincare and Fermat conjectures are correct.
Huh. I was thinking more along the lines of “Boxers or Briefs”.
It hardly would matter, we have people who believe the moon landing was faked, it would be much easier to disbelieve life on other plantet no matter how strong the evidence was.
Bump.
It may be happening sooner than we think.
Extrasolar ‘Super Earth’ is first to have an atmosphere
Liquid water, albeit 250 degrees.
Deep ocean (probably)
etc…
Not beyond expectations for hyperthermophiles found right here on Earth.
And if not this one, our ability to resolve smaller systems in more detail at greater distances is only going to give us more opportunities.
I’d almost bet within my lifetime. (Hopefully another 50 years.)
Holy crap - red star, dense planet/atmosphere…we may as well start calling it Krypton today, because that’s what its inhabitants already call it. 
Wow, they’re just like US!!
And, closer to home, we found organic matter on the Moon, to go with the water! Beer & baloney sandwiches, maybe perhaps?
A beer well! A baloney mine! Perfect incentive for colonization!
It used to be that finding water would be the big OMG moment. But we now know that there is water on Mars, the Moon, Europa, Enceladus, many other places. So now it is just another interesting piece of the puzzle. The average person may know about it, probably not, but in either case cares very little.
The discovery of life on other planets in the solar system will be the same ‘oh, that’s interesting’ yawn.
Same with extra solar life. 60 seconds of Katie Couric’s vapid stare and blathering on the evening news and on to the next American Idol contestant. You know, the ‘real’ news.
To be fair, planetologists expected water to be found all over the place. This is no great surprise that trace amounts of water are found on the Moon, Mars, and other bodies. Finding liquid water, on the other hand, would be very important, as it is the basic solvent of life.
Oh, she’s upgraded, then? It used to be “absent gaze.” But yes, for the typical citizen, such a pronouncement would be a, “Yes, but how does that make my teeth whiter?” moment.
Stranger
Ask, and ye shall receive. Liquid water on an extrasolar planet. Granted, it’s probably hotter than anything on earth (and the water is only liquid because the pressure’s too high for it to boil easily) but it’s still quite exciting.
Edit: Aha. Projammer beat me too it.